With the increase of gambling at gaming venues has come increased competition between gaming venues to obtain a larger share of the total gambling spend. Gaming venue operators have therefore continuously looked for new variations and types of games in order to attract both new and return customers to their venues.
In response to this need, suppliers of gaming devices and systems have attempted to provide the sought after variety, while still developing games that comply with the relevant regulations in the jurisdiction of the gaming venue operator. Suppliers of gaming devices therefore are faced with restrictions on the types of games and gaming apparatus that are allowable, both in terms of the prevailing regulations and in terms of providing a return on investment to the gaming venue operators.
In addition, it is important that a player be able to understand the operation of a game quickly so that the player promptly feels that they are in control of game play and can therefore extract maximum entertainment from the game.
Games are known in which a player is invited to guess a characteristic of a symbol which is then revealed to indicate whether the guess is right, and if so, the player is awarded a prize. One such game, for example, is a card game in which a player is invited to guess whether a card is red or black. The player is typically awarded a prize of twice the wager if the guess is right, and loses the entire wager if the guess is wrong. A problem with this game is that the return to player is on average 100% of the wager, that is, the house does not receive a percentage of the wager over time. A further problem with this type of game is that providing a jackpot prize in the game is not possible without further increasing the return to player percentage of the game. A yet further problem is that the game tends to be somewhat limited, and players therefore quickly tire of the playing the game.
Any reference in this specification to the prior art does not constitute an admission that such prior art was well known or forms part of the common general knowledge in any jurisdiction.